Paul Hession

Paul Hession started playing guitar and singing in the church choir at 7 and he
credits his choir leader - also an improvising organist - with his continued interest
in music. He started playing drums at the age of 15, being mainly self taught, and
started off through the usual route of rock groups, cabaret, and working men's clubs.
'Seeing Elvin Jones at Ronnie Scott's Club in 1975 gave him food for thought for years.'

Having been drawn towards free improvisation, Hession formed Art Bart & Fargo with
Alan Wilkinson (alto and soprano saxophones) and Pete Malham (tenor saxophone, congas) in 1979,
and in the late 1980s and early 1990s did much of the organising for the Termite Club in
Leeds, formed originally by Wilkinson and guitarist Paul Buckton to perform and promote free
improvised music in the area. Since Hession has played with many improvisors, including
Harry Sjostrom, Jay Oliver, Wolfgang Fuchs,
Paul Rutherford, Hans-Peter Hiby,
Derek Bailey (as well as taking part in Company Week in 1988),
Evan Parker, Maggie Nicols, Phil Wachsmann,
Peter Kowald, Paul Dunmall, Alan Tomlinson, Teppo Hauta Aho,
Paul Rogers, Marcio Mattos, Lol Coxhill, and
Peter Brötzmann.

Between 1985 and 1987 Paul Hession ran the Improvised Music Workshop in Leeds, he taught
drumming in schools from 1989 to 1991, played music with silent films and worked with
dancers Tamsin Spain and Derek Williams of the Northern Ballet Theatre, and he played
bebop with Teddy Edwards in 1988.

The trios Hession/Wilkinson/Fell and Something Else! with Mick Beck and Simon Fell have been re-energised and are active once more. In recent years he was invited to play with Marshall Allen in
Brussels, Poschiavo (Switzerland) and London, toured in the UK with Joe
McPhee, works regularly with The Thin Red Line - an Anglo-Norwegian trio with Petter Frost-Fadnes and Rus Pearson - and has a Leeds based
trio, Unit of Resistance, with saxophonist Richard Ormrod and double
bassist Paul Moore.